I had heard that some of the nuttier Bama fans had been "watching him" play football since the Pee Wee leagues. He was supposed to be their "golden boy"- I think his Mom was a cheerleader at Bama, and I don't know if his Dad played football or what. But then he goes to Hoover- one of the larger HS's in the largest city in Alabama and wins a State title there, and then finally goes to Bama and becomes the master of the 14-35 with a TD and 2 INT's day. It would have been a nice story if it all had worked out, but the reality is he was just an average D-I QB on a team that was in limbo for his first three years with Shula and then rebiulding his junior year, and he did have a good year his senior year at least. Essentially, their fans built a facade and lived it out.
That's just how we are in the South- maybe other places to. That's why Gene pumped Chris Garrett up. He was from a fairly large town in Mississippi, played at a traditionally strong football school, and was from a State family. And if he had come to MSU and led us to a 10 win season, he would have been a hero for life. Tyler Russell is not much different- I think Meridian may even be larger than Tupelo, again strong football school, led them to a Championship, is a huge State fan. I think we all have in our minds some kind of a story kind of like the Manning's where you essentially have a "local boy made good" story and the guy leads the team to football glory for four years and then goes on to the NFL. The reality is very few QB's are ready to come in and play right away in the SEC. Even as RS freshmen. I think Tyler Russell will also be very good in time as well. But he needs that time to develop. And hopefully we get Cameron Newton and Russell will develop.
An example of this are the people that sit behind me at the MSU games from Columbus. They think that Tyson Lee can do no wrong. It doesn't matter that he is stinking up the place out there, and clearly doesn't belong on the field. But if you say one bad thing about Tyson, you get "Well, let's see you go out there and do better", or I heard someone say something about Lee's arm strength and one of the guys behind me said- "Tyson's arm is as strong as anyone else's in the SEC" . I always warn people that I bring to the games about them so they don't get scolded and wonder "where the heck did that come from?"
